The price I pay are not the euro’s I spend

Climbing is definitely not the cheapest thing to do. For those who wonder, climbing Denali will cost you over 10.000 euro including the trip, flights, gear and everything. Most of the 7 summits are a little less expensive. Notable exceptions are Everest and Vinsion. Both are much more expensive; over 40.000 euro each. But that’s only money.. and in the end not the biggest price I pay.

The real price cannot be written down in any amount of cash.

Training

I demand myself to be in an excellent physical condition for all summits. My training sessions are pretty intense, hard and long. I train about about twice as hard as Alpine Ascents recommends for Denali. Why? Because this is one thing I can control to increase my chance of summitting.

The real price

Like most men of about 40 years old, I have a family and a full time job. And there is the real price. Time is limited and, like most people, I cannot buy any extra. This forces me to prioritize. Working less is not an option, since there is a mortgage to pay and there are mouths to feed.

Family life

This is where I have to prioritize and choose. I have a wife and two young kids. I often choose between either bringing my kids to bed or go out for my daily suffer-session. Choose between spending a Saturday with my wife and kids in the park and have fun with them. Or choose to spend an evening with my wife in some fancy restaurant.

And guess what I choose most of the time? Indeed, training!

Intrinsic motivation

Some time ago, I spoke to a colleague of mine who was surprised by the strength of my intrinsic motivation. I strongly believe this is the only true working motivation for someone to be successful. Almost every day I choose between my wife and kids, whom of course I love very much, and the training I need to be in a good shape. It’s never easy to say no to my son who’s asking me to play a game with me.

But there’s always this voice in my head, this focus demanding me to be successful on Denali. And the only one who is pushing me to do this is … me.

So is this price too high?

No, definitely not! While it’s definitely not always easy. I am very aware of the choices I make and the things I miss because of them. But to me, the are rewards that are huge. Of course summiting Denali, or any other challenging mountain, is one of those rewards. But maybe even better are the lessons I learn about myself; my mind, my body and how I react to the things I do. And hopefully I can share some of that knowledge with my family and the world.

March 23, 2017March 23, 2017

Prepping for Denali: 3 months to go

Part four of my monthly countdown for Denali. I must admit, it’s getting harder to look back. Last week I was really surprised it’s less than two months before departure. I feel things are getting serious now. But still… what did I do last month in prepping for Denali?

Physical preparation

First some sad news.. The Be Your Best program has ended. Two months of an intensive program on Boot Camp helped me make a serious step forward. I’m a cyclist for over 25 years now, making my legs pretty strong. But thanks to the Boot Camp program I became much more of a multi sporter. My core stability increased dramatically, making me overall much stronger. I lost over 5kg of fat (which is pretty much for me!), but a did not loss any weight. Thus, extra muscle power!

The Boot Camp program had barely ended, before I left for a week. the Hiking Eifelsteig was good and great preparation. I already wrote quite extensive about that week!

And I would almost forget… I had another great two day hike on the Twentepad. This surely has been one of the most beautiful hikes I have done so far in the Netherlands!

Again, I have made some slight adjustments to my weekly training program. I’m still going Boot Camping once a week, just to keep my current level of strength. New on the program is a 2 hour+ hike with a 30kg packpack with stairs. Living in the Netherlands, without any hills or mountains, force you the be creative sometimes.

Equipment

Not too much news here. Most stuff in ready to go. Still some small additions.

	Haglofs Activities top. Actually, this is my second one. I love Haglofs because it just fits great. I love Merino, because it keeps me dry and warm.
	Haglofs Activities pants. I own some 10 years old Craft base layer pants. While walking the Twentepad, I decided I just don’t like the way they fit. So, time for replacement!

The expedition

Nothing new here! One thing left to do; booking a hotel in Anchorage. But plenty of time for that!

And now forward!

Yes! Let’s look forward! Spring is coming! I feel I want to get outside more and more; hike, cycle, etc. But, lets keep that for the next episode of prepping for Denali!

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017

6 days of the Eifelsteig

Last week we had the opportunity to hike six days of the Eifelsteig. The Eifelsteig is a 300 KM-trail from Aachen to Trier in Germany. It is one of the top-trails of Germany. And did it meet expectations? Yes! Most definitely!

The first time we heard of the Eifelsteig was about 4 years ago. We were on holiday in the Eifel and visited Manderscheid, a beautiful tiny village with a ruin of an ancient castle. We walked around the village through the woods. We noticed there were signs everywhere of the Eifelsteig. Back home, we found more info of the complete steig on their excellent homepage. At that point we decided we needed to hike this steig at least once!

6 days of the Eifelsteig

Since we only had 6 days, we did not have enough time to do the whole Eifelsteig at once. So, time for some decisions; what stages would be most interesting? One important thing was we needed to be able to get back to our starting point, where our car was. After studying the map for a while, we decided to depart from Gerolstein. Trier would be the end of our 6 days. Exactly 6 stages and the possibility the return to Gerolstein by train.

But not just hiking..

As you might know, I am preparing for something. Just hiking around in the Eifel for 6 days would not be enough to continue my preparations. Following this, we decided we where going to camp as much as possible. So, taking a tent, sleeping bags, food, stove and everything was an excellent way to train hiking with a 20kg+ rucksack.

The days

Hiking was great! The steig itself is very beautiful, I was surprised by the low amount KM’s we needed to walk over tarmac. Most paths lead through the forest. Views were stunning, and we fully enjoyed the (lack of) sounds in the forest. The Eifelsteig definitely met my expectations!

Was all great? Almost! In the end, we only camped two nights (Schalkemehren and Manderscheid), partly because of the rain. But mostly because campsites seem to be really rare at the Eifelsteig. Wild camping is forbidden in the Eifel, so we were reluctant to do this, even though I saw some really beautiful spots.

The summary, movie-style

During the hike I experimented somewhat with my freshly bought actioncam. I summarized the 6 days in a movie of over a little more than 120 seconds, see below. Enjoy!